Indecopi initiated a process against two companies that would have distributed tenders for more than S / 26 million

Indecopi reported that, through the National Directorate for the Investigation and Promotion of Free Competition (DLC), it initiated an administrative sanctioning procedure against the companies Polysistemas Corp. SAC and Salmón Corp. SAC for allegedly having agreed to divide up the clients and the regions of the country to sell printers and supplies for printing driver’s licenses to the Regional Directorates of Transport and Communications (DRTC) between 2014 and 2020.

The companies would have carried out about 375 public procurement or direct contracting processes called by the DRTC, which would represent approximately S/ 26 million.

According to the evidence obtained by the DLC, such as statements, emails and information extracted from the portal of the Electronic State Procurement System (SEACE), between 2014 and 2020, both companies they would have decided to avoid competing with each other to win the bids.

For it, the regions of Peru and the clients would have been distributed to provide them with printers and supplies for printing certificates nationwide. Thus, the coastal regions of the country would have been supplied exclusively by Salmón, while Polysistemas would have occupied the central and eastern regions.

The Free Competition Law states that companies are prohibited from agreeing with each other to carry out any anti-competitive practice, such as setting prices, dividing up customers, geographical areas, among others.

Polysystems clarification

For its part, the company Polysistemas reported that the current owners of the company were the ones who reported the events to Indecopi related to the previous owners.

“In effect, our company is acting in direct collaboration with the Indecopi authorities and the aforementioned procedure has been carried out based on the information and collaboration of the new administration of Polysystems so that the previous management is sanctioned,” the company said in a statement.

He explained that at the end of 2020, the firm Colca Capital Bidco acquired exclusive control of the company Polysistemas. Upon assuming their duties, the new management identified that, between 2014 and 2020, the previous administration had incurred in administrative violations of free competition.

Thus, it was determined that, in said period, Polysistemas and the company Salmón Corp. established an agreement to avoid competing with each other in the market for the supply of supplies for printing driver’s licenses. In the internal agreement, each one of them assigned attention to certain regional transport directorates and established coordination in order to simulate a competitive scenario.

“The new management of Polysistemas as soon as it became aware of this improper agreement, it decided to take concrete actions. The first of these was to make itself available to the Indecopi authorities under the Leniency Program (Effective Collaboration) by providing all the necessary information: emails, invoices, declarations, information on tenders, standards, etc.”, he explained.

He added that the collaboration of the new management has materialized under the corporate modality, that is, not only the delivery of company information but the participation of any natural person willing to collaborate.